As a common acoustic-electric transducer for converting electrical power into acoustic energy, the speaker is crucial in the sounding system. There is a variety of speakers, by which audio cones or diaphragms vibrate and resonate with the surrounding air to make sound through electromagnetic effect, piezoelectric effect or electrostatic effect. Thus, it is difficult to imagine how to enjoy wonderful sounding effects without the speaker.
Conventional miniaturized speakers/receivers for consumer applications encountered technical challenges in further size scale-down to below 6×6×1 mm{circumflex over ( )}3 due to manufacturing limitations.
On one hand, the prior MEMS speaker is manufactured by wafer process and magnet integration, which makes the manufacturing process of the speaker extremely complicated. Besides, the connecting pieces for connecting respective components of the speaker are mostly made of fragile materials which, however, are unable to bear large deformation, thereby deteriorating the quality and service life of the speaker.
On the other hand, the prior MEMS speaker is a miniaturized digital speaker which requires a complicated high voltage integrated circuit (MEMS) to drive itself, while the diaphragm is susceptible to the impact from the digital switch of the digital miniaturized speaker, thereby deteriorating the quality and service life of the speaker.
Generally speaking, the prior speaker has the following problems:
1. Technical limitations and cost restraints in further size-down for conventional speakers/receivers, as driven by the consumer markets.
2. The application of MEMS technology to the speaker seems not advantageous enough due to high cost, low performance and poor reliability etc.
3. The manufacturing cost of the MEMS speaker keeps high due to the complicated wafer process.